The results of World War 2 briefly. The main stages of the second world war. The alignment and balance of forces in the world at the end of the war

In September 1945, the Second World War ended, which lasted six years, affected many countries, claimed millions of lives and forever changed the course of history. In our article we will summarize its results.

The results of the war

The consequences of the debilitating armed clashes of the Second World War were huge human losses (about 70 million), colossal material costs (4 trillion dollars), numerous destructions (tens of thousands of cities). What was paid for by these victims, we will find out by telling briefly about the results of World War II point by point:

• The unconditional victory of the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition: 09.05. Germany surrendered in 1945, at the end of May Italy was completely liberated from the Nazi troops, Japan capitulated on 09/02/1945;
• Preventing the spread of the Nazi regime (dictatorship, racism); his overthrow in the losing states;
• Liberation of territories occupied by Germany and its allies;
• Some Asian and African colonial countries became independent (Ethiopia, Lebanon, Indonesia, Vietnam, Syria).

Rice. 1. Victory parade in 1945.

The logical outcome of the end of the war was the condemnation of the supporters of the Nazi regime. The International Military Tribunal met in Nuremberg (Germany). 403 court hearings were held from 11/20/1945 to 10/01/1946. Only three defendants were acquitted, the rest were found guilty of crimes of varying severity (sentences ranging from 10 years in prison to hanging).

Rice. 2. Nuremberg trials.

Consequences

In addition to the indicated results, we will pay attention to the consequences (including far-reaching ones) for specific countries. These are presented separately as a table of World War II results:

The country	Outcome
	Strengthening the role in world politics (one of the two states - the new world leaders). Serious influence on a number of liberated countries (East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary). Territory expansion. Improving military production, the army. Beginning of the Cold War with the USA
	The ability to have a significant impact on the solution of post-war issues. Control over the activities of the new Japanese government. Economic and political confrontation with the USSR, which led to the formation of NATO
Great Britain	Maintaining independence. Decreased world political influence (despite victory). Loss of part of the colonies
	The role in international politics has decreased. Some colonies won independence. French administration controlled part of Germany
Germany	Formal preservation of the integrity of the state under the control of the victorious states. Changing the political structure of the country. Loss of all occupied territories. Transfer of part of their own lands to Poland. The ban on the formation of the army, the availability of weapons. Compensation for damages (reparations) to affected countries
	It lost its independence (until 1952 it was occupied by the USA). Two cities were subjected to the world's first atomic bombing. Return of occupied Chinese lands. Part of the pre-war territories was annexed to the USSR and China. Held the Tokyo Trial (29 war criminals)
	territorial losses. The need to pay reparations. Restrictions were introduced on the number and types of troops, weapons
	Withdrawn from Germany. It was under the control of the troops of the allied states until 1955
	Lost the occupied lands. Part of the territory transferred to Czechoslovakia

In order to prevent the recurrence of such horrific military clashes in the future, the heads of major victorious states during World War II (since 1942) developed the structure of a special organization called the United Nations. In June 1945, the charter of the organization was signed, and the date of October 24, when the document came into force, is officially considered UN Day.

The Second World War, planned by the aggressors as a series of small lightning wars, turned into a global armed conflict. From 8 to 12.8 million people, from 84 to 163 thousand guns, from 6.5 to 18.8 thousand aircraft simultaneously participated in its various stages from both sides. The total theater of operations was 5.5 times larger than the territories covered by the First World War. In total, during the war of 1939-1945. 64 states with a total population of 1.7 billion people were involved. The losses incurred as a result of the war are striking in their scale. More than 50 million people died, and given the constantly updated data on the losses of the USSR (they range from 21.78 million to 30 million), this figure cannot be called final. Only in the death camps, the Nazis destroyed 11 million lives. The economies of most of the warring countries were undermined.

The terrible consequences of the war strengthened the global tendency to unite in order to prevent new military conflicts, the need to create a more effective system of collective security than the League of Nations. Its expression was the establishment in April 1945 of the United Nations.

The Second World War had important political consequences. Gone is the system of international relations, born of the Great Crisis of 1929-1932. A grouping of aggressive fascist powers was defeated, whose goal was not only to redistribute the world, but to establish world domination through the liquidation of other states as independent political units, the enslavement of entire peoples, and even the destruction of a number of ethnic groups (genocide); two historical centers of militarism disappeared - German (Prussian) in Europe and Japanese in the Far East. A new international political configuration arose based on two centers of gravity - the USSR and the USA, which had become extremely strong as a result of the war, and by the end of the 1940s led two opposing blocs - Western and Eastern (the system of the bipolar world). Communism as a political phenomenon lost its local character and became for almost half a century one of the determining factors of world development.

The balance of power within Europe has changed radically. Great Britain and France lost the status of pan-European hegemons, which they acquired after the First World War. In Central Europe, the border between the Germanic and Slavic peoples returned to the Oder, by the turn of the beginning of the 8th century. The socio-political life of the Western European countries has significantly moved to the left: the influence of the Social Democratic and Communist parties has sharply increased, especially in Italy and France.

The Second World War initiated the process of disintegration of the world colonial system. It was not only the Japanese and Italian colonial empires that collapsed. Weakened and the hegemony of the West over the rest of the world as a whole. The defeats of the colonial powers on the battlefields in Europe (France, Belgium, Holland in 1940) and in Asia (Great Britain, Holland, USA in 1941-1942) led to a fall in the authority of the white man, and the significant contribution that dependent peoples made to the victory over fascism, contributed to the growth of their national and political self-consciousness.

During the war years, the international influence of the USSR increased sharply. Together with the United States, the Soviet Union became one of the world leaders. The internal political system of Soviet society also became stronger. Politically, the USSR emerged from the war as a stronger state than when it entered it. The growth of such influence of the USSR caused extreme concern of the leadership of the Western powers. As a result, two strategic tasks were defined in relation to the USSR: at least to prevent further expansion of the sphere of influence of the USSR, for which purpose to create a military-political alliance of Western countries led by the United States (NATO, 1949), to place a network of military bases near the borders of the USSR United States, to support anti-socialist forces within the countries of the Soviet bloc.

The measures taken by the USSR were adequate (Warsaw Pact Organization, 1955). The leadership of the Soviet Union regarded the new foreign policy of the former military allies as a call to war.

The Second World War - the biggest conflict in human history. 61 countries of the world took part in it. 80% of the world's population lived on the territory covered by the war. Military operations were conducted on all oceans, in Eurasia, Africa and Oceania. 110 million people were drafted into the armies of the warring countries. If the First World War lasted a little more than 4 years, then the second - 6 years. It has become the most destructive of all wars. Total casualties reached 50 - 55 million people, of which 27 million people were killed on the fronts. The greatest human losses were suffered by the USSR, China, Germany, Japan and Poland.

The Second World War was the result of the purposeful activity of a small group of aggressor states, which the world community was unable to curb. The leaders of these states brought to the peoples of the world the liquidation of democracy, racial and national oppression, the assertion of the right of the strong in international relations. Whatever the world was like in the 1920s and 30s, however far from perfection it was, their victory would mean a step back in world history. It would open the way for the social, political and cultural degradation of humanity. And therefore, all those who fought against the aggressors fought fair, regardless of what were the motives of this struggle for each of its participants. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that among the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition there was also a totalitarian state - the USSR. For the Soviet people, the anti-fascist war of liberation did not become a movement towards democracy. Rather, on the contrary, paradoxically, the war contributed to the strengthening of totalitarianism. But this does not in the least diminish the contribution of the USSR to the defeat of fascism.

The USSR made a decisive contribution to ridding the world of the threat of fascist enslavement. In terms of scale, the Soviet-German front was the main one throughout the Second World War. It was here that the Wehrmacht lost more than 73% of its personnel, up to 75% of tanks and artillery pieces, and more than 75% of aviation. First of all, the great Victory was won by the selfless courage of Soviet soldiers and home front workers, multiplied by the mighty potential of the Soviet state. For exploits on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War and behind enemy lines, over 11 thousand people were awarded the highest title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The USSR emerged from international isolation, became a great power recognized by all, without whose participation not a single important issue of international politics was resolved.

The Second World War, which ended in the complete defeat of its main culprits, had consequences unique in depth and scale for the destinies of world civilization. At the same time, we note their extreme inconsistency.

• · Despite the attempts made during the war by the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition to find forms for continuing cooperation in the post-war era, a bipolar model of the world arose in the form of opposing superpowers (the USSR and the USA) with their allies. Between the two centers of power, almost immediately after the victory, the "cold war" began to unfold (all types of hostility and struggle, except for direct armed clashes). It lasted, either strengthening or weakening, for more than 40 years and came to an end only with the disappearance of one of the poles, the collapse of the USSR and the collapse of the socialist camp in the late 80s and early 90s).
• The negative experience of the interwar twenty years, which led to the Second World War, was taken into account: very influential international organizations were created:

l International Monetary Fund

l International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Their goal was to increase the level of stability of the post-war world in the economic, political, social, humanitarian and military spheres. The UN General Assembly adopted in December 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the official ideology of the world community. The protection of human rights has been proclaimed a task to which all peoples and all states must strive.

• · The victory over fascism caused a qualitative strengthening of democratic humanistic forces both in the West and in the rest of the world. The values ​​of modernization were universally recognized after 1945. Supporters of the reformist-democratic trend ensured the restructuring of Western capitalism on social and humanistic principles.
• · An important outcome of World War II was the disintegration of colonial empires. From the end of the war until 1963, as a result of the liberation struggle, more than 1.5 billion of the world's population embarked on the path of national independence.
• · One of the main outcomes of the war was a new geopolitical situation. It was characterized by the growing confrontation between the leading capitalist powers and the Soviet Union, which extended its influence to a number of countries in Europe and Asia. This confrontation was exceptionally dramatic due to the fact that it developed in the nuclear era, which humanity entered in August 1945. By order of the President of the United States, atomic bombs were then detonated over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even in the most acute moments of global confrontation, the memory of the experienced nightmare kept unbalanced politicians from taking a fatal step towards mutual destruction.

A terrible war with large-scale human losses did not begin in 1939, but much earlier. As a result of the First World War in 1918, almost all European countries acquired new borders. Most were deprived of part of their historical territory, which led to small wars in conversation and in mind.

The new generation brought up hatred for enemies and resentment for the lost cities. There were reasons to resume the war. However, in addition to psychological reasons, there were also important historical preconditions. The Second World War, in short, involved the entire globe in hostilities.

Causes of the war

Scientists identify several main reasons for the outbreak of hostilities:

Territorial disputes. The winners of the 1918 war, England and France, divided Europe with their allies at their own discretion. The collapse of the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire led to the emergence of 9 new states. The lack of clear boundaries gave rise to great controversy. The defeated countries wanted to return their borders, and the winners did not want to part with the annexed territories. All territorial issues in Europe have always been resolved with the help of weapons. It was impossible to avoid the start of a new war.

colonial disputes. The defeated countries were deprived of their colonies, which were a constant source of replenishment of the treasury. In the colonies themselves, the local population raised liberation uprisings with armed skirmishes.

Rivalry between states. Germany after the defeat wanted revenge. It has always been the leading power in Europe, and after the war was largely limited.

Dictatorship. The dictatorial regime has grown considerably in many countries. The dictators of Europe first developed their army to suppress internal uprisings, and then to seize new territories.

The emergence of the USSR. The new power was not inferior to the might of the Russian Empire. It was a worthy competitor to the United States and leading European countries. They began to fear the emergence of communist movements.

The beginning of the war

Even before the signing of the Soviet-German agreement, Germany had planned an aggression against the Polish side. At the beginning of 1939, a decision was made, and on August 31, a directive was signed. State contradictions of the 30s led to the Second World War.

The Germans did not recognize their defeat in 1918 and the Versailles agreements, which oppressed the interests of Russia and Germany. Power went to the Nazis, blocs of fascist states began to form, and large states did not have the strength to resist German aggression. Poland was the first on the way of Germany to world domination.

At night September 1, 1939 German secret services launched Operation Himmler. Dressed in Polish uniforms, they seized a radio station in the suburbs and called on the Poles to rise up against the Germans. Hitler announced aggression from the Polish side and began hostilities.

After 2 days, Germany declared war on England and France, which had previously concluded agreements with Poland on mutual assistance. They were supported by Canada, New Zealand, Australia, India and the countries of South Africa. The outbreak of the war became a world war. But Poland did not receive military and economic assistance from any of the supporting countries. If English and French troops were added to the Polish forces, then the German aggression would be instantly stopped.

The population of Poland rejoiced at the entry into the war of their allies and waited for support. However, time passed, and help did not come. The weak side of the Polish army was aviation.

Two German armies "South" and "North" consisting of 62 divisions opposed 6 Polish armies from 39 divisions. The Poles fought with dignity, but the numerical superiority of the Germans proved to be the decisive factor. In almost 2 weeks, almost the entire territory of Poland was occupied. The Curzon Line was formed.

The Polish government left for Romania. The defenders of Warsaw and the Brest Fortress went down in history thanks to their heroism. The Polish army lost its organizational integrity.

Stages of war

From September 1, 1939 to June 21, 1941 The first phase of World War II began. Characterizes the beginning of the war and the entry of the German military into Western Europe. On September 1, the Nazis attacked Poland. After 2 days, France and England declared war on Germany with their colonies and dominions.

The Polish armed forces did not have time to turn around, the top leadership was weak, and the allied powers were in no hurry to help. The result was the complete cupping of Polish territory.

France and England did not change their foreign policy until May next year. They hoped that German aggression would be directed against the USSR.

In April 1940, the German army entered Denmark without warning and occupied its territory. Norway fell immediately behind Denmark. At the same time, the German leadership was implementing the Gelb plan, it was decided to surprise attack France through the neighboring Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The French concentrated their forces on the Maginot Line, and not in the center of the country. Hitler attacked through the Ardennes behind the Maginot Line. On May 20, the Germans reached the English Channel, the Dutch and Belgian armies surrendered. In June, the French fleet was defeated, part of the army managed to evacuate to England.

The French army did not use all the possibilities of resistance. On June 10, the government left Paris, which was occupied by the Germans on June 14. After 8 days, the Compiegne Armistice was signed (June 22, 1940) - the French act of surrender.

Great Britain was to be next. There was a change of government. The US began to support the British.

In the spring of 1941, the Balkans were captured. On March 1, the Nazis appeared in Bulgaria, and on April 6 already in Greece and Yugoslavia. Western and Central Europe were dominated by Hitler. Preparations began for an attack on the Soviet Union.

From June 22, 1941 to November 18, 1942 the second phase of the war began. Germany invaded the territory of the USSR. A new stage began, characterized by the unification of all military forces in the world against fascism. Roosevelt and Churchill openly declared their support for the Soviet Union. On July 12, the USSR and England signed an agreement on common military operations. On August 2, the United States pledged to provide military and economic assistance to the Russian army. On August 14, England and the USA promulgated the Atlantic Charter, which was later joined by the USSR with its own opinion on military issues.

In September, Russian and British troops occupied Iran to prevent the formation of fascist bases in the East. The Anti-Hitler coalition is being created.

The German army met strong resistance in the autumn of 1941. The plan to capture Leningrad failed, as Sevastopol and Odessa resisted for a long time. On the eve of 1942, the "blitzkrieg" plan disappeared. Hitler was defeated near Moscow, and the myth of German invincibility was dispelled. Before Germany became the need for a protracted war.

In early December 1941, the Japanese military attacked a US base in the Pacific. Two powerful powers entered the war. The US declared war on Italy, Japan and Germany. Thanks to this, the anti-Hitler coalition strengthened. A number of mutual assistance agreements were concluded among the allied countries.

From November 19, 1942 to December 31, 1943 the third phase of the war began. It is called a turning point. The military operations of this period acquired a huge scale and intensity. Everything was decided on the Soviet-German front. On November 19, Russian troops launched a counteroffensive near Stalingrad. (Battle of Stalingrad July 17, 1942 – February 2, 1943). Their victory served as a strong stimulus for the following battles.

To return the strategic initiative, Hitler carried out an attack near Kursk in the summer of 1943 ( Battle of Kursk July 5, 1943 - August 23, 1943). He lost and went on the defensive. However, the allies of the Anti-Hitler coalition were in no hurry to fulfill their duties. They were waiting for the exhaustion of Germany and the USSR.

On July 25, the Italian fascist government was liquidated. The new head declared war on Hitler. The fascist bloc began to disintegrate.

Japan did not weaken the grouping on the Russian border. The United States replenished its military forces and launched successful offensives in the Pacific.

From January 1, 1944 to May 9, 1945 . The fascist army was forced out of the USSR, a second front was being created, European countries were being liberated from the fascists. The joint efforts of the Anti-Fascist Coalition led to the complete collapse of the German army and the surrender of Germany. Great Britain and the United States conducted large-scale operations in Asia and the Pacific.

May 10, 1945 - September 2, 1945 . Armed operations are carried out in the Far East, as well as the territory of Southeast Asia. The US used nuclear weapons.

Great Patriotic War (June 22, 1941 - May 9, 1945).
World War II (September 1, 1939 - September 2, 1945).

The results of the war

The greatest losses fell on the Soviet Union, which took the brunt of the German army. 27 million people died. The resistance of the Red Army led to the defeat of the Reich.

Military action could lead to the collapse of civilization. War criminals and fascist ideology were condemned at all world trials.

In 1945, a decision was signed in Yalta on the creation of the UN to prevent such actions.

The consequences of the use of nuclear weapons over Nagasaki and Hiroshima forced many countries to sign a pact banning the use of weapons of mass destruction.

The countries of Western Europe have lost their economic dominance, which has passed to the United States.

The victory in the war allowed the USSR to expand its borders and strengthen the totalitarian regime. Some countries have become communist.

World War II is over. 61 states participated in it. The fighting took place on the territory of 40 countries. More than 50 million people died in the war, including about 27 million Soviet citizens. This is the most bloody and destructive war. Thousands of cities and villages, innumerable material and cultural values ​​were destroyed. The results of the Second World War led to major political changes in the international arena, the gradual development of a trend towards cooperation between states with different social systems. In order to prevent new world conflicts, create in the post-war period a security system and cooperation between countries at the end of the war, the United Nations (UN) was created, the Charter of which was signed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco by 50 states (USSR, USA, Great Britain, China and others).

In order to expose the essence of German fascism, its plans for the destruction of entire states and peoples, the danger of fascism for all mankind, the Nuremberg Trials took place. At the Nuremberg trials, for the first time in history, aggression was recognized as the gravest crime against humanity.

Trial in Nuremberg (Germany) in 1945–46 over the main Nazi criminals, which was held in accordance with an agreement between the governments of the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France and the charter of the International Military Tribunal. Almost the entire ruling elite of Nazi Germany was in the dock - leading Nazi politicians, industrialists, military leaders, diplomats, ideologists who were charged with crimes committed by the Nazi regime. The Tribunal was to consider the issue of recognizing the organizations of the Nazi regime - the leadership of the Nazi Party, the SS, SA (storm troops), the Gestapo, etc. - criminal. The indictment was based on the concept of a common plan or conspiracy drawn up by the defendants to achieve world domination by committing crimes against peace, war crimes or crimes against humanity. Among the defenders were prominent German lawyers. None of the defendants pleaded guilty.

During the Nuremberg trials, 403 open sessions of the Tribunal were held. The accusation was based mainly on German documents. The defendants and their lawyers sought to prove the legal inconsistency of the Charter of the Tribunal, blaming all responsibility for the crimes committed on Hitler, the SS and the Gestapo, and made counter-charges against the founding countries of the Tribunal. The final speeches of the chief accusers were built on general principles.

In late September - early October 1946, the tribunal announced the verdict, which analyzed the principles of international law, the arguments of the parties, and gave a picture of the criminal activities of the regime for more than 12 years of its existence. Tribunal sentenced G. Goering, I. Ribbentrop, W. Keitel, E. Kaltenbrunner, A. Rosenberg, G. Frank, W. Frick, J. Streicher, F. Sauckel, A. Jodl, A. Seyss-Inquart and M. Bormann (in absentia) - to death through hanging; R. Hess, V. Funk and E. Reder - to life imprisonment, V. Schirach and A. Speer - to 20 years, K. Neurath - to 15 years, K. Doenitz - to 10 years in prison; G. Fritsche, F. Papen and G. Schacht were acquitted. The Tribunal declared the organizations SS, SD, Gestapo, the leadership of the National Socialist Party (NSDAP) to be criminal, but did not recognize the SA, the German government, the General Staff and the Wehrmacht high command as such. A member of the tribunal from the USSR, R. A. Rudenko, declared in his "dissenting opinion" that he disagreed with the acquittal of the three defendants, spoke in favor of the death penalty against R. Hess. After the Control Council for Germany rejected the petitions of the convicts for clemency, those sentenced to death were hanged in the Nuremberg prison on the night of October 16, 1946 (H. Goering committed suicide).

Nuremberg Trials was a response to the atrocities of the fascists and militarists unprecedented in world history, became an important milestone in the development of international law. For the first time, officials responsible for planning, preparing and unleashing aggressive wars were brought to criminal responsibility. For the first time it was recognized that the position of the head of state, department or army, as well as the execution of government orders or a criminal order, do not exempt from criminal liability. The Nuremberg principles, supported by the UN General Assembly as universally recognized norms of international law, entered the consciousness of most people. They serve as a basis for refusing to carry out a criminal order, they warn of the coming responsibility of those leaders of states who commit crimes against humanity.

THE PRICE OF VICTORY turned out to be high, but the sacrifices made on the altar of the Fatherland were not in vain. Our people brought them in the fight against fascism, in the war, in which the question of the life and death of the country, the historical fate of the state, and independent existence was decided.

Of course, our losses could have been less if not for the significant miscalculations and mistakes of the political and military leadership of the country on the eve and at the beginning of the war.

The incompetence of a number of military leaders, the poor professional training of some commanders and personnel, pre-war repressions of command personnel, as well as the unfavorable circumstances of the Red Army's entry into hostilities at the beginning of the war, also affected.

In the Great Patriotic War, at the front and in the rear, the Soviet people showed their dedication and discipline with all their might, mass self-sacrifice and enormous energy, pressure and unprecedented stamina, without which victory would not have been possible. History has never seen such resilience. She did not know such a will, and the power of conviction.

In this conviction in the rightness of their cause, the idea of ​​​​defending the Fatherland and the national idea, faith in the justice of socialism and religious faith, and trust in power turned out to be merged. This strengthened the Red Army, saved it during defeats and failures, made the country a single military camp, and contributed to the mobilization of all material and spiritual resources in the name of victory.

The existing social system, the political system, the CPSU(b), as the engine of the entire state machine, were able to ensure such an order that, on the whole, met the requirements of the war. No matter what people say and write after decades, it is a historical fact that in the most difficult times for the country, the Communist Party was the main stabilizing force of society. This can be kept silent in official speeches, opportunistic publications and television programs, it can be deleted from school textbooks, but it is impossible to delete it from the real history of the Great Patriotic War. The political, organizational and ideological activity of the communists at the front and rear became the most important factor in victory. Perhaps never, despite mistakes and miscalculations, did the party act so fully in this capacity as during the Great Patriotic War.

The Great Patriotic War showed that only force can be opposed to force, only a cohesive society, people who are confident in the rightness of their cause, who firmly know what they are fighting for and dying for, what is put on the scales of history, could win in it.

On September 2, 1945, the Second World War, which lasted six years, ended, which was the most difficult and bloody in the history of mankind. Over 50 million people died during the war. The Soviet people suffered especially heavy losses. The total number of deaths was about 27 million people. During the Great Patriotic War, 32 million people were drafted into the army, of which about 7.8 million people died, died of wounds, and were captured. About 7 million died in the occupied territories. The same number, about 7 million people, died in the Soviet rear due to deteriorating living conditions. The loss of the camp population amounted to about 3 million people. The population decline due to migration is about 2 million people. However, not everyone agrees with these data, which are officially recognized. A number of historians claim that the total losses in World War II amounted to 46 million people.